EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Eastside-Central Coalition will launch a new effort to preserve the stories of Black families and community leaders who helped shape some of El Paso’s historic neighborhoods.
The coalition announced the Black Families Oral History Project, a community-led initiative focused on collecting and preserving the experiences of Black families, entrepreneurs, faith leaders, educators, civic organizations, and descendants connected to El Paso’s historic Black commercial and residential corridor.
According to the coalition, neighborhoods including Alameda-Piedras, Eastside, Eucalyptus, Lincoln Park, and Five Points once formed an interconnected center of Black family life, business, worship, education, culture, and civic leadership.
The project comes as some residents with firsthand memories of those communities are aging, while photographs, family documents, and other historical records remain dispersed among families and organizations, officials said.
The coalition says documenting those personal accounts now can help create a more complete public record of El Paso’s Black history.
The Eastside-Central Coalition (ECC) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on economic development, community concerns, and increasing the visibility of ethnic-owned businesses. Its work includes the Eastside Central-Alameda Corridor, with a stated focus on areas including Alameda and Five Points.
The coalition’s broader economic-development plan calls for strengthening the local tax base, attracting targeted industries, and creating pathways to higher-paying careers.
For the oral history project, the coalition is seeking stories that can help document not only individual experiences but also the businesses, churches, schools, organizations, and family networks that made up El Paso’s historic Black community.
The effort could provide future generations with firsthand accounts of a part of El Paso’s history that organizers say remains under-documented.
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